Heathrow Airport clear winner of Noise Olympics!

Press Release

18/8/16 for immediate use

Heathrow Airport clear winner of Noise Olympics!

Heathrow was the clear winner of the Noise Olympics staged this morning by campaign group HACAN in Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith (1). The airport received its medal, in the form of golden ear-defenders, from the local MP Andy Slaughter. The silver went to Frankfurt and the bronze to Charles De Gaulle. Gatwick trailed badly to finish in last position.

Heathrow won the race because it overflies more people than any other airport in Europe. According to European Commission figures over 725,000 residents are overflown which is 28% of all people in Europe disturbed by aircraft noise (2).

HACAN chair John Stewart said, “This was a fun way of showing that Heathrow is already in a noise league of its own. Residents are very worried what a third runway with an extra 250,000 flights a year will mean.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

(1).The Noise Olympics.

Date: 18th August

Time: 11am

Venue: Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith

Event: A 100 metres race, 8 runners (representing the 7 European airports which overfly most people plus Gatwick), each wearing t-shirts

(2). The European league tables (as produced by the European Commission)

European table (top 20)

Airport

Population within 55Lden contour

Heathrow

725,000

Frankfurt

238,700

Paris Charles de Gaulle

170,000

Lisbon

150,000

Paris Orly

110,000

Manchester

90,000

Naples

80,000

Milan Linato

70,000

Glasgow

63,600

Hamburg

50,000

Brussels

49,700

Birmingham

47,900

Stuttgart

44,000

Schipol Amsterdam

43,700

Valencia

43,000

Warsaw

43,000

Bergamo

43,000

Madrid

43,000

Milan Malpensa

43,000

Toulouse

42,000

Gatwick is well outside the top 20 with 11,900 overflown. That would rise to a total of 37,000 if a second runway was built.